Two pensioners endured lone Christmas dinners of tinned soup after they were not collected for Hammersmith and Fulham Council's party on December 25.

They had been assured they would be driven to the borough's Christmas lunch at Hammersmith Town Hall, in King Street, which is held for pensioners who would otherwise be alone.

When their drivers did not turn up, they were forced to prepare their own meagre meals from cans of soup.

Marguerite Lewis manages Age Concern's lunch club at Farm Lane, Fulham, where she collects details of clients eager to accept the council's hospitality. She said: "It make me distressed to think that they were forgotten. It should never have happened."

Betty Smith, 96, from Batman Close, Shepherd's Bush, was one of the forgotten guests.

She said: "Of course I was looking forward to it. I think it is really terrible I was left behind."

Angela Faragher, 83, from the White City Estate in Australia Road, Shepherd's Bush, also spent Christmas Day alone.

She said: "It was disappointing for me, because it would have been my first time there."

Mrs Lewis from Crabtree Lane, Fulham, added that she sent the forms with clients names to the council and later personally checked all the tickets had been sent out.

The council delivered gifts for the two pensioners to Age Concern on Friday, but H&F claims they were not tokens of apology, simply gestures of goodwill.

A H&F spokesman added that both tickets had been cancelled in December.

But Mrs Lewis disputed that, adding: "Why would they cancel?"